Interpretation
of the Holy Trinity by Masaccio

One of the iconic works of Renaissance
art, The Holy Trinity with the Virgin and Saint John and donors
(1428) can be seen in the Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella, in
Florence. Like many religious paintings
produced during the Renaissance
in Florence, it also has a secular side. First, it depicts the Trinity
of God the Father, Christ the Son and the Holy Ghost (symbolized by a
white dove); second, it also functions as a commercial portrait of the
patron or customer. The work was commissioned by Domenico Lenzi and his
wife, as a mural painting for the
family remembrance chapel at Santa Maria Novella. However, the feature
that made it one of the 15th century's most influential Renaissance
paintings, is its use of single-point linear perspective to organize
its composition. Its 27-year old creator Tommaso di Giovanni Masaccio
(1401-28) was to Early
Renaissance painting what Filippo
Brunelleschi (1377-1446) was to architecture, and Donatello
(1386-1466) to sculpture.

Superb Demonstration of Linear Perspective

The geometric principles of linear
perspective - the technique whereby an artist may depict three-dimensional
depth on the flat painting surface - appears to have been discovered by
Leon Battista Alberti
(1404-72) in his treatise Della Pittura (On Painting) published
in 1435. As a science, perspective was associated with optics and the
study of vision, but as a pictorial technique it was only properly explored
during the Early Renaissance
in Florence. In his Holy Trinity, Masaccio was the first individual
of the Florentine
Renaissance to properly explore the illusionistic potential of this
new technique. The painting depicts a chapel, whose cavernous interior
seems to open up before the viewer. Inside, framed by Ionic columns, Corinthian
pilasters and a barrel-vault ceiling, a crucified Christ is overlooked
by God and the Holy Spirit, flanked by John the Evangelist and the Virgin
Mary. The modelling of these figures is so realistic that they could be
statues. Each of them - except for God, the immeasurable entity - occupies
their own three-dimensional space. To cap it all, in front of the pillars
which form the entrance to the make-believe chapel, Masaccio portrayed
the two donor donors Domenico Lenzi and his wife. He painted them life-size
and in equally realistic detail. The whole trompe
l'oeil effect of the chapel and its occupants, is a stunning example
of how realistic depth can be incorporated into a flat painting.

At the front of the picture, below the
level of the chapel floor, there is a sarcophagus on which Adam's skeleton
is laid out as a memento mori for the viewer with its inscription "I
was once as you are and what I am you also shall be."

Influential

Masaccio's Holy Trinity became a
hugely influential painting for generations of Florentine artists. Writing
over a century later, the Mannerist artist and biographer Giorgio
Vasari (1511-74) was so overwhelmed by the effect of Masaccio's perspectival
foreshortening that he was
convinced there was a hole in the wall containing the make-believe chapel.

In 1570, a stone altar was built in the
church of Santa Maria Novella, which led to Masaccio's mural being covered
up. As a result, the fresco remained invisible for almost three centuries
from 1570 to 1861, until the altar was removed and the painting once again
became visible. However, it wasn't until 1952 - when the lower (skeleton)
part of the painting was also uncovered
- that the entire fresco was put on view.

Meaning

No art historian has come forward with
anything but a fairly straightforward interpretation of the iconography
of the work - the theme of Jesus on the Cross, attended by God the Father,
Mary and John, was a relatively common motif in quattrocento
(15th century) and early cinquecento (16th century) art. The meaning
of The Holy Trinity, emphasized by the skeleton's rather ghoulish
caption, seems to be that only through prayer (the praying donors), the
intercession of holy figures (the Virgin Mary, Saint John), and a resolute
belief in Christ, can we transcend our earthly existence and obtain everlasting
life.

The Holy Trinity exemplifies cutting
edge early Renaissance painting. Furthermore, in its synthesis of Biblical
art, religion and science, it expresses the mystery of faith as well
as God's perfection through the harmony of classical architecture and
the dignity of the human form. It is also a demonstration of the impossible
- the creation of three-dimensionality from a two-dimensional surface.
Who knows, perhaps Masaccio was using this scientific demonstration to
allude to the greater impossibility of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Masaccio

Within months of completing the work, Masaccio
was dead. His sudden demise put an end to his meteoric 7-year career,
during which he had already produced three other masterpieces: Madonna
with St. Anne (c.1423, Uffizi, Florence), the Pisa Altarpiece Polyptych
(c.1426, Staatliche Museen, Berlin), and the Brancacci
Chapel frescoes (c.1425) in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine.
He remains one of the greatest Early
Renaissance artists.

Further Resources

If you're interested in other quattrocento
frescos, please see the following: